Category Archives: NFLE

CFL, College Football HoF, NFL, NFLE

Ware, Andre (3)

Card: Fleer 1990, Action Packed 1991, GameDay 1992
Acquired: TTM 2020, C/o Home
Sent: 3/17 Received: 4/5 (18 days)
See Also: Andre Ware, Air Ware

Andre sure got in a lot of great cards in his short amount of time on the starting stage in the NFL. Even after this third stab at a few more autographs, there are a few more cards I could probably nab him on.

I loved Action Packed and GameDay’s sets. Action Packed 1991 was a pretty well designed set, with that simple swoosh that goes through the left side of the image- it maximized the canvas area to focus on the player image. I also really liked the flat helmet image at the end. It’s a really underrated set, and despite the slight smudging is great to get autographed. Most of the images are indeed- action packed. This Gameday image is really nice, however one of the set’s design flaws comes forward a bit when the silver blends against the gray, the image looks a bit more flat. The Fleer 90 card was one of 4 (technically) that had a college photo of Andre in it. (The others being Topps, ProSet, and Score.) We always laughed at the fact that Fleer didn’t find a shot of Andre actually throwing the ball- but instead chose to get a shot of him pitching the ball out. All of these cards were distant set needs for me in my never ending autograph quest.

About the time that Coronavirus broke loose and some stay at home notices were put into place, Andre started signing his TTM mail after a 5-6 year absence from the game. He was initially playing catchup and then started signing some newer requests. I always liked Andre, and I hadn’t TTMed him since 2012, I decided he was ripe for the picking.

As of 2020, Ware remains the steady voice as the color commentator for the Houston Texans game day radio show.

NFLE

Dyal, Mike

Cards: Score 1990, ProSet 1990, Fleer 1990
Acquired: TTM 2020, C/o Home
Sent: 9/30 Received: 10/5 (5 days)

Mike Dyal played collegially for Texas A&I University. Initially recruited as a QB, Mike just kept getting bigger and bigger, and moved from QB to WR, eventually settling at TE. Despite having soft hands, decent speed, and good blocking skills, Mike was not drafted in the 1988 NFL Draft. A lot of it had to do with small school stigma- but Mike was on the radar of many team’s priority free agent list. His agent convinced him his best shot was joining the Raiders, where an aging Todd Christensen was the starter, and the long snapper was his backup. He made an impression in camp, and then took a dive so he could make the squad and become the heir to Christensen at the TE position for the Raiders the following season.

In 1989, Mike had his best season as a pro, starting all 16 games for LA. He caught 27 passes for 499 yards- a whopping 18.5 yards per reception and 2 TDs- including a career long 67 yarder. 1990 and 1991 were largely a wash for Mike due to injury, but by the time he returned to the lineup, the position was in different hands under Ethan Horton. He spent 3 games with the Chiefs in in 92, and then split time between the Chiefs and Chargers in 1993 before retiring.

I had no clue that Mike was a living locally in Central Texas. Once I found that out, I wrote him pretty soon afterwards. He responded very quickly on these 3 cards. While Mike’s career was modestly brief as a starter, he made the most of it, appearing on many of the popular brands of the day. These three cards were my favorite of his, with the Fleer sticking out the most to me with a dynamic frontal shot of him with his helmet breaking the plane of the image design.

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32/183864016.8267
NFL, NFLE, University of Texas

Gunn, Lance

Cards: Classic 1993, ProSet 1993, Playoff 1994
Acquired: TTM 2019, C/o Home
Sent: 10/25 Received: 11/5 (11 days)

Lance played college ball for the Texas Longhorns from 1989-1992 at safety. A hard hitting rangy product and solid special teams contributor, he had 298 total tackles, 6 sacks, and 10 interceptions (1 TD) over his 4 years in Austin.

He’d be selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 7th round of the 1993 draft. Lance ended up starting 8 games for Cinci at strong safety recording 25 solo stops and 3 assists, along with one fumble recovery- before a knee injury ultimately cut short his season and his NFL career.

Lance reappeared on the football scene in 1997 playing one year for the Frankfurt Galaxy of the NFLE. He decided to hang up his cleats in 1998 after he donated a kidney to his father.

As a footnote, Lance decided to give football one more shot in 1999 with the Texas Terminators of the IPFL. He made it through training camp and was going to be their starting safety, but right before the first game of the season, Frito Lay made him an offer to come on board that he could not refuse. As of 2019, Lance lives in the Austin area.

I was pretty much ducking out of trading cards by this point. The price to value ratio, combined with the design was just not that great. I do remember being at Cowboys Training Camp at St. Edwards that Summer in 1993, and picking up a few packs of Classic 1993 at Mr. K’s Sports Cards. I was happy to pull the Classic 93 card of Lance while walking back to camp- and then now getting it signed a bit over 26 years later.

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